I never thought I could feel so empowered and inspired on a 16-hour flight to the United States. From the time I entered the car on my way to O.R. Tambo International Airport, I began typing my thoughts and ideas about social change on my iPhone while taking occasional breaks to look up at the beautiful South African sunset.

Arlen is currently a member of the U.S. Paralympic National A Team and was set to compete in Montreal this month. Upon arriving, Arlen was notified by the IPC that she was ineligible to compete in IPC-sanctioned competitions due to the possibility of walking in the future.

Apart from the Paralympics themselves, for me the most moving moment of an extraordinary summer was the BBC film, "The Best of Men," about the person who inspired the games, the late Dr. Ludwig Guttmann. It is a story of hope rescued from several kinds of despair.

When I first encountered Leon he was not downtrodden in a corner, he was not splayed on a hospital bed, he wasn't even in a wheelchair. He was instead a shiny red blur whizzing by me at a cool 25 mph down a bumpy stretch of torn concrete.